On Saturday, August 10, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity concluded its latest gathering of the Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE) program in Durham, N.C.
The program, which provides mentorship and workshops to aid the transition from junior faculty status to associate professor for economists from underrepresented groups (most notably, Black, Latinx, and Native American economists) and is currently on its 15th cohort, ended its latest meeting with a trio presentations from past and current Cook Center postdoctoral associates.
Lauren Russell, researcher at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. and former postdoctoral associate at the Cook Center, outlined a series of in-progress papers that explore the relationship between mass incarceration, criminal background checking, and racial disparities in labor and housing markets. Dr. Russell’s talk, titled “Essays on the U.S. Criminal Legal System and Black-White Inequality,” explained her interest in documenting and estimating the consequences of these co-occurring phenomena during the period following the Civil Rights Movement.
Next up was Cook Center postdoctoral associate Will Damron, who presented on “Old New Work”: exploring the half-century of economic history from 1850 to 1900 and exploring what jobs were new and disappearing in this period. By using census and other datasets, Dr. Damron hoped to understand the kinds of new jobs that were created, the connection between new jobs and economic growth, and the diffusion of these new jobs throughout the nation’s economy.
The final talk was from postdoctoral associate Ayinwi Muma. Dr. Muma’s work features the throughline of how businesses and management navigate various settings and circumstances, and her talk detailed how entrepreneurs incorporate new technology, how they navigated difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the connection between rates of entrepreneurship and the racial wealth gap in various municipalities.
The program wrapped up with closing remarks from Dr. Jorge Zumaeta, Cook Center visiting professor and senior research scientist. Dr. Zumaeta, who himself was a DITE fellow in the program’s 11th cohort and is currently a Senior Director at Florida International University, spoke about the “highly rewarding feeling” of seeing DITE scholars go from junior faculty to senior positions.
Moreover, he said, creating a space for this growth and building the shared community of DITE is a lot of work for everyone—but work that pays off with every passing year.
“You see how much heart and soul we put into this,” Dr. Zumaeta said, of the efforts of the Cook Center organizers and DITE mentors. “After a while, you start to feel like you’re part of the family.”
The next DITE workshop will take place in spring 2025. Photos from the conference are available on the Cook Center’s Flickr page.
